Re: recording

In Reply to: recording posted by gary on November 14, 2002 at 07:45:28:

The three biggest hurdles we face when recording are:

1. Poor quality soundcards. I get great sound when I record to my computer, but I bought an expensive third-party multitrack soundcard. SoundBlaster Live cards also work pretty well if the levels are set correctly.

2. Input signal levels always seem to be too high or too low and never "just right. Too high and you get distortion. Too low and it sounds "tinny" and there's no volume. I use DCart32 from Diamond Cut Audio to massage wav files and adjust sound levels to 0db peaks I always record a bit on the quiet side of things because it's much easier to make it louder than remove distortion.

3. Microphone quality can be a problem if the mic distorts at low levels. I use a Shure Beta 58 direct into my soundcard for "pretty" songs. I put the same mic on a stand in front of my amp for everything else.

The song "Sandra Louise" was recorded on a computer with a high-end sound card and mixing console and it sounds pretty good.